Critic Accuses Prince of Persia of "Whitewashing"

[Makszi]

The Prince in the games was white. End of story

Ang, The Last Airbender was white. End of story. Ang's friends were Inuit so rant on their live-action actors all you like.

 

[SkullCap]

Critic Accuses Prince of Persia of "Whitewashing"

Independent filmmaker Jehanzeb Dar says the upcoming Jake Gyllenhaal film Prince of Persia [http://adisney.go.com/disneypictures/princeofpersia/] is "insulting" because a Caucasian rather than a Persian was cast in the lead role.

It seems obvious enough that a movie entitled Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time would be about a prince, or at least a princely guy, of the Persian persuasion. But the actor playing said prince isn't Persian at all; he's a blue-eyed dude from Los Angeles named Jake [http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0350453/]. In Dar's opinion, it's a clear case of "whitewashing" - casting white actors to play ethnic characters.

"This part really needed to go to someone who's Persian," Dar said. "It's not only insulting to Persians, it's also insulting to white people. It's saying white people can't enjoy movies unless the protagonist is white."

Maz
Similar criticisms were leveled at Racebending.com [http://www.thelastairbendermovie.com/]. "It's 2010."

While there's no doubt some merit to the complaint, I think it's also fair to suggest that Gyllenhaal was given the role in large part because he's a known commodity who can carry a summer blockbuster. The Last Airbender star Twilight [http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1717152/] alumnus and that probably counts for something. Maybe there's some latent racism at work here, but I think it's safe to say that a good old-fashioned hunger for money has a lot to do with it too.

Source: Yahoo! Movies [http://movies.yahoo.com/news/movies.ap.org/critics-airbender-prince-were-whitewashed-ap]


Permalink

Persians (Iranians) are Aryan (i.e. White). That's like complaining that Morgan Freeman can't play Nelson Mandela because he's not South African.

Your argument has the merits of attacking the whitewashing of The Last Airbender but Persians are ethnically ARYAN meaning WHITE.

Do research before you post or else hundreds of Escapist's will tell you how wrong you are just like they have been for the past several days.

 

[duchaked]

lol after seeing Movie Bob's explanation, I can't help but chuckle seeing how Jake Gylajkdljf is half Jewish (bar mitzvah and all) sooo...
now that critic is just saying he hates Jews haha

 

[Queen Michael]

To be honest, I agree. I want to see a Persian guy look Persian. The movie isn't as enjoyable if the prince of Persia is white. Imagine if they had a white guy playing Martin Luther King, or a black guy playing Hitler. When the entire point of the guy is that he is the prince of Persia, you need a Persian.

 

[ryukage_sama]

The term Caucasian also includes those of Middle Eastern descent.

Besides, I think Jake Gyllenhaal did just fine. I was more disappointed with Ben Kingsley who was surprisingly boring as a villain. The Hashashins however were cool and menacing.

 

[Double A]

This matters WHY? You don't need to be Persian to play a Persian, just like you don't need to be American to play an American, or French to play a Frenchman.

Is there anything these days that can't be seen as racist?

They wanted a big-name actor, for their big budget Hollywood action picture. If you can name a young but well known persian actor who could pull off action roles such as this, let me know.

I doubt they sat around the table and went 'Hey, audiences want white people in their movies! Let's give them that!'.

YOU RACIST!!!!!!111eleven11 TAKE THAT BACK!!!!!11112111

 

[Warforger]

No its not insulting in the slightest, he looks Persian enough, as after race half the time is just the color of your skin.

 

[Carlston]

Next time they whine about whitewashing or racebending, look at Final Fantasy 8 and they say Squall I flat out Eruopean and then listen to the fan kids whine when someone NOT Asian cosplays them...many animes ect do feature white people you know...

Hell look at Cloud, when they Asainbended him into Adventchildren, wow he looked kinda dumb ... you program him as a white guy THEN make him asian....with the blond spikey hair? Really...I mean really...now who is pretending of "proper" racial casting.

I'm not talking about if Barret is "African or Jamacian" We are talking about a obvious body, hair, faical mix that yes even though drawn in a manga style you blend to a real person doesn't work...but as SABAN showed us...you can take power rangers sell the stock footage of fights and costumes to every country, have them fill the suits with the ethic majority of the country and make it there own to make money...

Or you can epic fail like the US, ever notice the Yellow ranger was suppost to be a girl but changes into her suit and loses all female feature and gains a crotch bulgde?

Oh right, this is only bad when the US does it for our actors...

 

[Redweevil]

While there's no doubt some merit to the complaint, I think it's also fair to suggest that Gyllenhaal was given the role in large part because he's a known commodity who can carry a summer blockbuster.

What? Jake isn't known at all, he's only been a supporting actor in a few movies. He's never carried a lead role in a significant movie, let alone a summer blockbuster.

He hasnt done a significant movie? What about Donnie Darko?

 

[DeathWyrmNexus]

Didn't Movie Bob point out that the lead guy is half Jewish which is actually from that general area? Or was I ninja'd?

 

[Hiroshi Mishima]

Honestly, I understand the issue here. I've been rather annoyed by it myself over the years. However, the way they seemed to cast him in the role of Prince was because he looked like the character in the game, so I'm actually not bothered by him being in it.

If anything, I'm bothered that the princess looks white as the driven snow, when she clearly wasn't in the games, voice not withstanding.

 

[TylerC]

The Last Airbender star Jackson Rathbone may not have quite the same level of fame but he is a Twilight alumnus and that probably counts for something.

...What? If anything, I would assume that's a negative.

And on the reversal, it's like the Kane & Lynch movie, where they cast a Jamie Foxx as a white character.

 

[spartan231490]

"This part really needed to go to someone who's Persian," Dar said. "It's not only insulting to Persians, it's also insulting to white people. It's saying white people can't enjoy movies unless the protagonist is white."

What a crock of bs. The part needed to go to the guy who was best at it. End of story. Anything else is racism. A white prince of persia doesnt imply white people cant enjoy a movie with a non-white protagonist, it implies that the white actor was better than the persian ones.